USB and FireWire Ports randomly eject devices

Please, this is driving me totally batty. We're talking verge of insanity here. At first I thought it was a bad firewire hard drive. Then I replaced the hard drive, meanwhile losing a few hundred photos, just to find that the problem was the port. Jeez, I figured, I guess I will just get a bigger drive that will plug into the USB, even though I already have too many USB devices. Not only did i get one, but I got a second to back up the one, so that I wouldnt lose stuff again. And guess what? BOTH of the drives ejected randomly, while I was using them, the ejections occurring more and more frequently as time went on. So I cleared the PRAM. Problem solved...for a few days. Then it started again, and has gotten worse and worse. I've had to recreate my iPhoto library TWICE this week because the drive ejected while I was using iPhoto. That nearly 10k photos...it take a few hours to complete, so as you can imagine, its pretty annoying to have to do more than, oh, ONCE, EVER!! So, if anyone can tell me why all three of my ports that I could possibly plug an external drive into do this, please. I'd appreciate it. Especially if you could help before I was committed...

Perhaps I am not being descriptive enough of the problem? When I have any drive plugged in to either USB port, it randomly ejects, and the OS gives me the device removal scold message "Device Removal! You must eject drives before disconnecting, else you risk data damage or loss!" I'm not sure what happens if I plug in non-drive type devices, since I generally dont have them plugged in for long. If I plug a drive into the firewire, it just looks like it suffered a click-death. "Click click click click click click"
The problem is resolved temporarily by clearing the PRAM. Then it starts over again, becoming more frequent as time goes on.

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What is wrong with my 30" Cinema Display? The USB and FireWire ports still work, but the screen is pitch black. When you plug it into the computer, it detects that it's a Cinema Display.

When you plug it into the computer, it detects that it's a Cinema HD but the screen is pitch black.
For some reason, the USB and FireWire ports still work.

If you shine a really bright light directly into the screen can you then see a faint image on the screen? If so, that would indicate the backlight has died (hardware failure) and the unit needs repairing.

20" Cinema display with USB and firewire ports not working

I have a new 20" display and was wondering why my USB and fire wire ports at the back are not working. I have an external drive that is powered hooked up to the fire wire port and a no powered piano keyboard to a usb port.
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Verify that the display’s USB and FireWire cables are firmly plugged in to the
computer. Do they show in your profiler?
Try different ports in the computer.
Verify that your computer ports are working with other known problem free device.

Is there a Maximum amount of USB and Firewire Ports that can be added?

Can someone tell me if there is a maximum number of USB or Firewire ports
that can be added to an iMac by using hubs? I sometimes find myself running
short and wonder how this can be corrected. Also, the new iMac has
one Firewire--is there such a thing as a Firewire hub? Thanks for any info.

I think the exact numbers are:
USB. Up to 127 devices, including the hub devices, may be connected to a single host controller. iMac G4's have two controllers between the three ports (the port next to the modem has it's own controller shared with the modem(which also counts as a device)).
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Most Firewire devices have two or more ports so you can daisy-chain the connections without a hub.
regards
mrtotes

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With leopard 10.5.1 loaded, I frequently get the grey screen of death (kernal panic) if I have a USB device plugged in (other than the mouse and keyboard). I have Pantones's Huey (Screen calibrator) attached to the USB on my keyboard. After reading many forum issues about USB devices jamming up Leopard, I decided to unplug the Huey sensor... no more problems! Also I have a 500 GB WD My Book Studio external HD plugged in the back Firewire 800 Port, it works well. Plug a Digital Camcorder in the front Firewire port.. not only does my camcorder not mount, but my machine spits out the external HD and gives me an error message about improper device removal. Please release 10.5.2 and include fixes for these external device issues!
PS on a Tiger OS I have had zero conflict with these periferals

When I first installed Leopard I got an "install media is corrupt" message about the Leopard Install disk right from the start. My first thought was the hard drive. So I purchased and overnighted an new 500 GB internal hard drive to back up the main hard drive. I erased and reformatted my main hard drive to install Leopard on. Same problem. I tried to install on the new 500 GB HD no luck. I also installed 2 GB dimms at the time. Turns out the dimms weren't agreeing with leopard. I returned the dimms for new only to have the same "corrupt media" message. Crucial explained that the memory should be largest dimms toward the processor (slots 1 & 2) and so on. I put all my memory back the way it was and everything seemed normal. I installed Leopard successfully. I started to get frequent Kernal Panics with everyday use (I do graphic design). I checked the forums and kept reading about problems associated with USB and this or that program. I unplugged my Huey (used for screen color correction) and Wha-lah. No more Kernal Panics.
But, now my digital camera and my Dazzle 6in1 media reader do not mount and/or hang up my machine with a kernal panics. When I tried to boot from and use Leopards disk utility I got the "media corrupt" message again.
I just hope 10.5.2 addresses the Leopard to hardware/USB/Firewire issues.

MBPro w/Mini DisplayPort to Cinema Display w/only USB and Firewire ports?

I've searched the threads for something that will explain what kind of cable I need to use my Cinema Display with my MacBook Pro, and I'm not finding anything. The MacBook Pro has the Mini DisplayPort for video out, and the Cinema Display's only ports are two USB and two FireWire.
All of the video cables I've seen in the online Apple store are either Mini DisplayPort to DVI or Mini DisplayPort to VGA, neither of which would work. Tech support told me that the computer and the display are compatible -- can anyone tell me which cable I need?

I have been using the display for several years, connected to my G4 PPC Mac Pro. Now that I have a new MacBook Pro, I was thinking of getting rid of the tower and simply using the laptop.
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I understand getting a DVI-to-Mini DisplayPort converter cable, but the Cinema Display is apparently powered by the Mac Pro tower. Would a laptop be able to power the Cinema Display? And would I have to connect both USB plugs to the laptop? That would take up both of the MacBook Pro's USB ports.

Disconnecting all USB and firewire cables before upgrading OS X?

Hello,
I would like to confirm my understanding of some empirically effective advice provided in this previous Post about disconnecting USB and firewire cables before doing a Software Update and I presume also a Download update. What is gained by disconnecting the peripherals connected to the USB and firewire ports?
I'm getting ready to update from OSX 10.2.8 to 10.3.9 (using full Retail CDs, of course).
1. So it would NOT be a good idea to do the update in an external firewire drive? I had done this previously to leave my original OSX 10.1.5 in my internal drive alone while I tested the upgrade to 10.2.8 in a firewire drive. (I have since added a second internal drive.)
2. That I should disconnect my two printers from their USB ports.
3. If I'm doing a Download update vs. Software Update (from System Preferences), I guess I should also disconnect the cable to the modem?
4. Run Repair Permissions before and after each software update step?
Thanks in advance.
Raymon

Browsing through the Apple instructions on installing updates I do see in the section on Troubleshooting... to "Disconnect or remove anything that did not come with your computer" including removing any non-Apple RAM -- although this is recommended after an unsuccessful installation. Disconnecting the devices seems like an easy and prudent enough precaution.
I do wonder now about again doing an update on a volume in an external firewire drive. This did work for me twice before in upgrading from OS X 10.1.5 to 10.2.8 (which is markedly better than the former). I suppose I could try it again although this time in a Panther upgrade; if it fails I could upgrade in an internal drive.
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USB and Firewire Card for Mac Pro 3.0

I am running out of USB and Firewire Ports. Any suggestions on expansion cards for Firewire and USB??
Thanks
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The Sonnet PCI USB Express cards have this problem too - for the record. Sonnet know about the MacPro not waking with it installed, as do Apple. I am sure Apple willl come up with something, I may even find a workaround, but it has always seemed that expansion cards with all my Macs [ waaaay too many] have produced unpredicatable problems.

Can i use ALL usb ports and firewire port at same time??

can you plug in two usb devices and a firewire device, all at the same time??
into macbook or macbook pro....
macbook manual says, one high powered usb device can be plugged in.
but i dont know if they mean into each port, or at one time in total.
i just spoke to apple, and they told me to call support. i havent even bought the laptop yet.
i want to plug in a fast track pro audio interface = usb
a mouse = mouse, akai mpd16 drum pad = usb, and a 7200rpm firewire external hard drive..........so all my ports i wanna be using at the same time.
is this possible? or will macbook and the macbook pro differ in performance regarding this issue?
say if i buy a usb hub and plug in 5 usb devices...........possible?
or is their limitations??
thanks in advance.

dwb wrote:
MacBook - since I was replying to a MacBook question it wouldn't have exactly made sense to refer to my iMac experience, right?
BTW - there are two caveats. First, USB and FW ports can supply power to the devices that are plugged in but there is a limit to how much power they can supply which is why you should always use a powered hub if you are using a hub. If you are using your computer on battery, don't attempt to use an unpowered hub to plug in more devices. Second, if you are on battery, obviously the more unpowered USB/FW devices you have plugged in getting their power from the computer, the faster your battery will be drained.
An unpowered hub shouldn't pull in more than 500 mA. If it's four 100 mA devices plugged into the same hub, it wouldn't use more than a single 500 mA device like maybe a self-powered hard drive. Plugging in stuff like a USB mouse and a flash drive shouldn't consume too much power.
If you're already on battery power then I don't know if it would make much sense to say that one needs a powered hub; where's the power source? I know there are a few (rare) battery-powered USB hubs out there, but I don't know that many people who have them.

Is it safe to plug and unplug USB and Firewire cables with the computers on

Is it safe to plug and unplug USB and Firewire cables with the computers on? I have a Mac G4 and a newly purchased IMac and I use one printer for both computers. Should I shut down the computers when I unplug the printer and connect to the other computer? How about when switching firewire drives.
Is there an easy way to have both computers connected to the same printer? I have an Epson 1280 printer.

USB/Firewire ports were designed to be "hot" plugged. You can safely plug and unplug devices without usually having to shut down the computer or the device. Some devices, such as external HDs, digital cameras and iPods need to be "ejected" first, so as not to damage their formatting or data.
You can network your Macs wirelessly or with an ethernet cable and then set the printer connected to one computer to be shared with the other computer.
Here are a couple of links;
Connecting two computers using Ethernet
Sharing your printers with other computers

Directly control three LEDs based on USB or firewire port in laptop

As USB or Firewire interface is popular gradually, I attempt to control three LEDs through the USB or Firewire port in a laptop. The power can be provided through the interface or extra device. It's a very simple experiment, but I don't know how I can do this. Are there any solvements from NI? If not, what kind of development tools do I need for this object? Thanks in advance!

Paris,
National Instruments offers USB digital I/O devices that should work for this application. I have included links to these product pages below:
DAQPad-6508
DAQPad-6507
Since you only need to control three LEDs, you may want to also consider one of National Instruments FireWire multifunction DAQ devices. Besides eight digital I/O channels, they also include analog input, analog output, and counter functionality. I have also included links to these product pages below:
NI DAQPad-6070E for FireWire
NI DAQPad-6052E for FireWire
Good luck with your application.
Spencer S.

Testing speed of usb and firewire cables?

I have a bunch of usb and firewire cables that I would like to test somehow to determine if they are usb 1 or 2 and firewire 1 or 2. Some cables are labeled as high speed usb, some are not and some have no labels at all.
1. Is there a way to do this in Tiger?
2. For transfering data to an external drive, is Firewire 400 or usb 2 faster?
Thanks!

Hello kat.hayes,
Let's take your three questions in the same order:
Question #1: Technically, No, USB cables have the same termination ends. However, not all cables are made to the same standards and quality (shielding has a lot to do with how well they work/last). Quality cables are at a minimum double shielded but that does not stop mfg's from making claims about "high-speed". If there is a problem with the cable, you will know it in that the device connected will not work. Period.
The 2nd part of your question #1 regarding "bottleneck" is that if the USB2 port receives the slower USB protocol from a connected device, it will negotiate to the lower speed. Not a "bottleneck" exactly, as the external device you have connected will determine the speed. Not the USB cable.
I don't know why you are trying to figure out the speed of the USB cables.
It really comes down to what you want to do with your computer and what type of external device you need to connect. If you have a choice of which type of device to use, choose FW(See below #2 for a brief explaination).
Question #2: The issues and technical debate about which protocol is better(faster) really are meaningless as the final speed determinate is controlled by the chip/interperter that the manufacturer of your external device choose to use. If the device uses inferior chipset design, then no amount of "maximum rated transfer speed" for either FW or the USB-2 is going to make a bit of difference.
FW is usually faster. It comes down to the protocol used by the two designs. The one major diffence that benefits Firewire users is that it is isosynchronus. That means that if you have for example 3 devices, that all 3 would get 400mbps bandwidth to use, while USB2 is shared between devices. This is the ugly side of using USB2. If you a want an in depth technical explaination let me know.
Regarding your question #3:
Your Power Mac G5 has one FireWire 400 port on the front (rectangular shape with one pointed end), one FireWire 400 port on the back, a FireWire 800 port on the back(square,blocky shape), and four USB 2.0 ports—one on the front and three on the back. There are also two USB 1.1 ports on the keyboard. See this link:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/PowerMacG5Late2005_TechBrief.pdf
If thats not clear, here is a card showing two FW800 ports (square) and one FW 400 port (rectangular w/pointed one end).
http://www.1394store.com/eshop/product.asp?dept%5Fid=42&pf%5Fid=1225
Technically, FW400 is refered to as 1394a and FW800 as 1394b.
So, plug any USB2 into the computer only. USB1 devices can be plugged into either the computer or the keyboard.
And FW400 & FW 800 into the correct, differently shaped recepticals.
If you let us know what you intend to do with your external devices and I'm sure there will be a number of excellent suggestions, hopefully based on personal experience, on which protocol would best fit your situation.
Hope this helps.
Respectfully,
Bill Gallagher

Audigy Plat PCI Firewire port is destroying devic

I recently installed a Audigy Plat card on my PC (did not hook up the 5 /4 bay yet) and install all of the dri'ves via Creative's Autoupdate feature on this website. Once I was able to test the sound, mic, line in and all working successfully... I decided to hook up my digital camcorder. The device was not detected... which I thought was odd, however it gets worse. It now does not work in ANY PC!!!. It flashes DVIN. I then thought to try a friends camcorder, which worked perfectly right before he came to try it on this card and now his does not work either. So finally I tried to connect my ipod via the firewire and it completely locked up the IPOD.
Little background on the PC. Just built it(have built many pc's so this was nothing new, and used the Audigy in many of them). It has a p4 3.0ghz fsb800mhz chip and a 400 watt PS. It is running XP Service Pack 2.
I am in IT so you can throw whatever tips you may have at me. I have never seen this happen before and I just can't seem to figure out what is causing these devides to malfunction due to the card. Please let me know if there is a driver or anything that can fix this issue.
Thank you in advance.

Sir,
Are you positi've that your USB and Firewire Headers are plugged into the proper places on the card... The only thing I know of that would cause the problem your having is generally trying to plug a usb device into a port that has the other end plugged into a firewire port on the board...and vice versa.
The only other possiblities I can think of is a short in either the port or a bad cable, besides the fact the card may just be functioning improperly and it needs to be replaced.
I do know that the voltages used for USB and FireWire are different for each, and trying to plug a usb device into a firewire port and vice versa can either burn up the device or burn up your board or both.
Hope this hel
ps.
...good luck.

Any recommendations on a good USB and FireWire Hub?

Just bought a MacBook Pro and I'm about to start experimenting with Final Cut Express. With ports needed for usb powered speakers, a mic, a mouse, a usb flash reader (for photos)... and firewire ports needed to upload video and to connect an external drive, I'm thinking I need a hub.
Belkin has one- http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=TE2 88LL/A
But apparently, some come with- as if we haven't heard enough of it- a high-pitched whine.
Anyone have any experience with the ones from-
Compaq
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001DZGX2/ref=pdcp_etitle/103-2708024-2112661?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=172282
D-Link
http://www.mac-pro.com/s.nl/it.A/id.1210/.f?sc=2&category=16
or Macally
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000086TJU/sr=8-1/qid=1153264913/ref=pdbbs1/103-2708024-2112661?ie=UTF8
MacBook Pro 15", 120 GB, 2.16Ghz, 2 GB ram

The problem with a Firewire hub is you are still limited to one Firewire bus. Fortunately Express/34 cards exist with Firewire to add a Firewire bus:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=2119050
You may want to consider getting a 160 GB hard drive for your MacBook to have more storage for video and partitoning that drive to use part for just temporary scratch storage space which can be erased with Disk Utility.
As for USB hubs, always get ones that have their own external power supply from the computer, and don't use the bus power unless the devices you are hooking up have their own power. I have the MacAlly hub, yet even this great hub can't hook up an external Firewire hard disk and an EyeTV simultaneously.

Expanding USB and Firewire

Anyone have a good recommendation for expanding my USB and Firewire capability on my iMac 5gen (isight). I keep reading mixed reviews on belkin.
Thanks,
Jim

Oh dear, it is one thing after another for you, isn't it Jim!
+DLX-182 Dual Link Hub front view+
+4 FireWire ports on the front of the hub. Connect one to your computer and have 3 additional FireWire ports conveniently located on your desktop! Connecting FireWire cable included.+
It looks, once again, as if you have done everything correctly. Are you saying that the red power light on the hub isn't lighted? If that's the case, check the power cord and if it has a power brick, see if that's lighted. It sounds as if the hub itself is faulty (just what you needed to hear). You did connect the hub to the computer using the far right-hand port? Check your firewire cable and see if it's working properly. Also, try switching the ports on the hub that you have your 2 externals connected to. In addition, make sure that if you plug each of the externals directly into the computer, they show up.

USB and FireWire Ports randomly eject devices

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